entertainment, technology and more
In: Toy
14 May 2009
Another robot bites the dust. This time, it is Sony’s robotic MP3 player that could dance to your music by… flapping. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sony is discontinuing the Rolly in North America (and presumably in the world soon) as the $600 toy that doesn’t do much probably didn’t find enough buyers to justify its existence.
In: Toy
21 Apr 2009Ugobe, the maker of Pleo dinosaur robot has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which means they won’t be making the $350 Pleo dinosaurs anymore.
In: Movie Review
7 Apr 2009Fast and Furious is the fourth entry in the car racing franchise (although you wouldn’t know that from the title). I guess Fast 4 Furious doesn’t make much sense in the naming game. All you have to know is that, unlike the past 2 entries, both Vin Diesel and Paul Walker are back in L.A. in order to take care of unfinished business which involves, of course, fast cars and racing. Although surprisingly, there is less of car racing in this movie and if you are expecting lots of thrilling car races through the city at night, you will be disappointed.
Instead what you get is a better than the other 2 sequels overall. Storyline is more coherent, characters are developed slightly more and it is fun to see Vin Diesel and Paul Walker back in action together. In Fast and Furious, Brian O’Connor, an undercover FBI agent that no one seems to recognize (I guess they haven’t seen the first movie yet), and Dominic Toretto must infiltrate a drug operation where they drive cars filled with drugs through the US-Mexican border.
The movie is set between the events of the first one and the third one and it tries to tie everything together, which is a noble goal. But you aren’t watching this movie for its storyline or character development. Instead you want car races, car chases and action. There is a lot of girl on girl on girl kissing (maybe filmmaker’s fantasy), but many of the cars get plenty of screen time. If you suspend your sense of belief and just enjoy the ride, you will find a competent action movie that is perfect for the franchise fans. You may need to watch the first movie, confusingly called The Fast and the Furious, to figure out all the relationships but it isn’t a requisite to understand the bare bones story in this one.
Rating: 70%
In: Movie Review
2 Mar 2009The worst thing that a comedy could do is to make you bored, and Role Models certainly succeeded in boring me until the very end which was a recreated medieval pretend battle between warring “nations”. Of course, citing that as my highlight can tell you already how boring the rest of the movie was. The story follows 2 main characters: Wheeler and Danny, 2 energy drink salesmen who give talks at school about how to say no to drugs and instead get addicted to their toxic drink get into trouble and must do community service. They are paired up with 2 troubled kids and must act as a big brother/mentor.
The movie is full of visual gags, and most of the comedy from shock (such as “how dare they talk about oral sex in front of children!”) instead of real genuine jokes or gags. Role Models drags too long with the introduction of characters, especially the children. It shouldn’t take long for the audience to figure out how much of a fantasy loving geek one is, and how foul mouthed and short tempered the other one is. Instead, the bulk of the movie is focused on putting them in different situations and seeing what they will do.
The moral of the story, if any, is that any slacker can find strength within to triumph and accomplish much in life. This is exemplified by the movie’s climax where the 2 men and 2 children dress up as KISS members and participate in the medieval battle. It’s not as if the movie would have benefited from more writers, as there already were 4 on board. Instead, a much better direction would have helped the movie a lot by keeping the pace brisk and eliminating useless gags.
Rating: 45%
In: Movie Review
18 Feb 2009The best way to describe Quarantine is by the movies it was inspired of. Think of this movie as I am Legend meet Cloverfield meet Blair Witch Project. The movie follows a TV reporter named Angela Vidal as the camera crew tags along a fire crew as they are called into action. They get to a four-storey building and find an elderly woman who is frothing from her mouth and viciously starts attacking people.
The residents soon discover that Center for Disease Control has locked them in and put the entire building under quarantine. As the remaining survivors scramble to stay alive, the camera crew keeps rolling as this is the “recording” of how the events unfolded. Unfortunately what they record is very one-note and not worth saving. The movie’s premise of super rabies causing humans to violently attack each other is very reminiscent of zombies. A lot of the concepts in this movie have been done to death before, and the movie doesn’t add anything.
Worse still, they used the ending scene as the poster for the movie, spoiling the entire experience. If you have motion sickness, don’t watch this movie as there’s a lot of shaky camerawork and dark corridors.
Rating: 30%
With Zest, the executive chef Eric Eckard tries to marry traditional Italian flavors with somewhat modern American cuisine, and the result is surprisingly disappointing. I visited the restaurant during the busy Valentine’s day dinner service, and what a service it was (more on that later).
First the food: I started with the traditional fried calamari that was served with spicy lime aioli which complemented the calamari well. Thankfully the batter wasn’t needlessly thick and it was light enough to be enjoyed without weighing yourself down. Another appetizer I tried was the seared yellow fin tuna which was cooked to perfection and the gingered cucumber slaw was refreshing, without overpowering the tuna itself.
Unfortunately the entrees did not fare as well as the appetizers. One thing that grabbed my interest from the menu was the duck confit fettuccini. A nice duck confit of leg is difficult to pull off and Zest knows how to cook its ducks. The problem was with the fettuccini that featured sun dried tomatoes and mushroom, drowned in fat and oil. There was so much oil in the pasta that it was drowning and the mushroom was soaked in heavy oil. The pasta itself was nothing spectacular, and my pasta was severely undercooked. A beautiful duck confit was not able to save this disaster.
Another thing that has to be noted was the atrocious service. Granted it was packed to capacity, but that does not excuse the waiter from not attending to my table, taking forever to bring ice to chill the lukewarm bottle of white and not taking our order. The manager had to step in and take our entree orders when our appetizers were done and the waiter still failed to show up to figure out what we were going to eat next.
It is a bit disappointing that the duck confit was paired with the oily fettuccini. Perhaps a simple vegetable sidedish would have worked better. In the end, this mediocre restaurant needs better food if it is to compete in the crowded “American” cuisine.
In: Internet
2 Feb 2009My interest in football is incredibly limited, but Super Bowl is a shining showcase of what advertising money can create for those big conglomerates and this year’s offerings were tamer than usual. Maybe the recession has its toll on advertising budget as well… Here are my personal best and worst of last night’s Super Bowl ads.
Find the results in best and worse use of a celebrity, best and worse CG and the best and worst ads of the evening.
Sporting such accolades as “Best New Restaurant, 2008″ from Kansas City Magazine and “Award of Excellence, 2008″ from Wine Spectator, my expectations were pretty high for Michael Smith restaurant. Unfortunately the experience was less than stellar.
Surprisingly pedestrian menu covers the ground with fish, poultry and, of course, steak. I opted to start with seared foie gras served on a bacon-butternut squash poundcake with tart cherries and almonds. The dish was too salty and sweet as the cherries overpowered the foie gras, rendering it pretty mediocre. Another appetizer, braised rabbit, fared much better as the combination with the shiitake mushroom, leeks and parmesan was robust.
As for the entree, eight hour pork roast itself was pretty good, however it was served with green onion risotto that was blend and overcooked, and the jaliscan pico de gallo failed to save the dish. Nova Scotia fluke was another choice from the menu that failed to excite my palate as the fish itself wasn’t cooked to perfection that you would demand from a restaurant of such caliber.
In the end, for slightly average food, there are plenty of other choices in Kansas City where there seems to be a restaurant on every block. As you lower your expectations and visit Michael Smith, you will find ok food in a pretty well decorated eatery with a nice ambiance.
[Visit official website | lunch menu | dinner menu]
1900 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64108